the regional government wants at the very least fiscal autonomy. they called a snap election and threatened to hold a referendum on independence, but could this iconic spanish city ever leave spain? at the headquarters of the ruling party, i talked to one of the men who decide that. he is one of the leaders of the union party that runs the region. >> it is a difficult moment in a rich land that between 8% of 9% of our gdp every year to spain. the result is not happy at all because there are double the cuts in terms of social services, health services, double cups of the rest of spain and double taxes. that is a really big imbalance. we must solve that. >> catalonia has a powerful hand to play -- it is the industrial powerhouse, rich, a kind of spanish germany. until now, nationalist politicians have played that hand to get concessions from madrid, but madrid now can only offer austerity and has repeatedly denied the region's attempts to gain more autonomy. >> we have the political power, but barcelona had the economic power, and now, we are trying